Below is the written text that accompanies this (above) video from Rev. Allen V. Harris, Regional Pastor & President
The Christian Church in Ohio Makes God’s Love Real
By Rev. Allen V. Harris, Regional Pastor & President
As 2024 comes to an end, I want to take a moment to not simply review the mission and ministry in which the Christian Church in Ohio, your Regional Church, has been engaged, but offer a deep word of gratitude to all who have held our Regional Church staff, Council, Commissions, Teams, and Committees, close in prayer. Additionally, I offer a word of profound gratitude to those who have taken the time to show your tangible support through volunteering and financially supporting our ministries through either a direct gift, supporting the 2024 Renewal Initiative or the 2024 Christmas Offering, giving to Disciples Mission Fund, or putting the Regional Church Operations or Camp Christian Endowment in your end-of-life giving documents or your will. Of course, we are also grateful to all who have already given to our major fundraising campaign for the future, our “If Not Now, When? If Not You, Who?” effort. More will be coming about the latter when we launch the Congregational Phase in February!
It is important to note that at our most recent Finance Committee meeting it was soberly observed that while we are ending the year close to what we budgeted for both the Regional Church and Camp Christian, we are still in the red as we conclude 2024. If you have not had the chance to support the mission and ministry of the Christian Church in Ohio, please do so. Or, if you have given but have the capacity to give an additional gift, we encourage you to do so. Every gift moves us closer to a balanced year-end budget and helps us provide the care, training, support, and inspiration for which our congregations and leaders yearn.
If you have been receiving our monthly Regional Church Newsletter which comes out near the first of each month, and/or you receive our mid-month Congregational Leaders Mailing, you probably know how significant and how busy 2024 has been for the Christian Church in Ohio. (If you don’t receive either of these in your email inbox and would like to, please let us know at ccio@ccinoh.org.) 2024 has been marked by powerful ministry, expanded mission, and, yes, even particular challenges for our local congregations, clergy, lay leaders, and ministry partners as well as for the Regional Church.
There is no way to cover all of what the Christian Church in Ohio has offered in terms of mission and ministry for the last year, but here is a quick snapshot:
- Three Commission On Ministry candidates for ordination were approved and ordained to the ministry of Jesus Christ!
- Three Commission On Ministry candidates for commissioning were approved and commissioned to the ministry of Jesus Christ!
- Eight pastors were installed to their positions and I attended two additional installation services beyond the Region.
- Three new Teams or Committees were started to expand the effectiveness and capacity of the Regional Church: The Vision Team led by the Rev. Betty Sivis; the Church Transformation Team led by the Rev. Michael Doerr; and the Development Committee, led by the Rev. Stephanie McLemore.
- As your Regional Minister, I visited twenty nine congregations for worship and preached at twenty-one of those services. This is in addition to the multitude of phone calls and on-line and on-site meetings I had in order to help church leaders in a myriad of ways.
- We offered some incredibly helpful and much-needed events and programming for the life of the church, including:
- A Clergy Spiritual Life Retreat for sixty clergy with the world-famous singer/songwriter Carrie Newcomer, that was hosted jointly by the Christian Church in Ohio, Disciples of Christ and the Heartland Conference United Church of Christ;
- We resumed our biennial International Affairs Seminar and I accompanied fourteen high school youth and five other adult advisors traveling to New York City and Washington, DC to help us connect our faith with public life. This event was also jointly sponsored by the Christian Church in Ohio and the Heartland Conference;
- Two additional Lay Preaching Academy sessions were offered, one in the spring led by the Rev. Nikki Mazza Fredley on Strategies For Sermon Preparation and one in the fall with me on Using Multimedia In Preaching;
- A once-in-a-lifetime viewing of an eclipse in almost 100% totality took place on Monday, April 8th! Over 270 people gathered for a day of fun, crafts, learning, worship, and, of course, safely viewing the Eclipse at Camp Christian. At least 70 of those attending were visitors who had never been to our camp previously!
- A first ever Spirituality Of Fundraising Workshop was led by the Rev. Stephanie McLemore and the Development Committee;
- A first ever Being The Beloved Community Retreat was led by Jeff Evans and the Congregational Renewal Team;
- We planned, staffed, and led a full Summer Camp Program with twelve separate camps, conferences, and retreats for 488 individuals of all ages!
- We expanded to over 50 the number of non-Summer Camp rentals and events at Camp Christian to move ourselves closer to the vision of creating The Regional Ministry Center at Camp Christian!
- We continue to be one of the leaders in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the United States and Canada in the area of Young Adult Ministry. Our Advance Conference Officers planned and led retreats and a week-long Summer Conference. Plus our newest offering, the QuarterLife Retreat, was held again in November for participants who are “25 to 45-ish” in age.
- For the first time I as your Regional Pastor & President offered a State Of The Church Address in two parts looking at both the faith/theological situation that our Regional and larger Church is in, but also the physical and administrative condition of the Church;
- For the very first time we held our biennial Regional Assembly in tandem with the Annual Gathering of the Heartland Conference at Northwest Christian Church which was considered a resounding success. Nearly 300 participants enjoyed a rich program with a keynote speaker, two musical “reflectors,” two Global Ministry preachers, dozens of exhibitors, our separate UCC/DOC business sessions, a networking session, and incredible energy and enthusiasm for more jointly-sponsored ministry and events. The Rev. Dr. Dave Long-Higgins is their Conference Minister and a personal friend and cherished colleague of mine.
- At that joint Annual Gathering and Regional Assembly our Regional Church initiated our participation in over a dozen Networks the Heartland Conference had already been launched which honor and focus the insight, passion, and faithfulness of our members far beyond what the Regional Church or the Conference can offer with our limited staffing and funding.
- Our clergy and lay growth experiences for both our Pro-Reconciliation/Anti-Racism Ministry as well as our Healthy Boundaries Training continue to improve with our twice-annual Awareness Conversations and our on-line Basic Healthy Boundaries courses and our second annual on-site Domestic & Intimate Partner Violence Awareness and Prevention Training.
- We connected local church leadership with partners across the life of the General Church in order to improve and amplify the ministry being done person-to-person in our communities. Whether it was with the help of Brock McCracken at Disciples Church Extension Fund, the Rev. Matt Rosine or the Rev. Dr. Nadine Burton at the Christian Church Foundation; Rev. Dr. Jose Martinez in New Church Ministry; Mark Anderson or the Rev. Monica Wedlock Kilpatrick at the National Benevolent Association; Raquel Collazo at the Disciples Pension Fund; the Rev. Dr. LaMarco Cable at Disciples Overseas Ministries; the Rev. Dr. Paul Tche’ with the Christian Unity and Interfaith Ministries; the Rev. Dr. Lori Tapia of Obra Hispana; the Rev. Dr. Delesslyn Kennebrew of the National Convocation; the Rev. Chung Seong Kim of the North American Pacific Asian Disciples; the Rev. Dr. Joel Brown of the Disciples of Christ Historical Society; the Rev. Dr. Tamara Nichols Rodenberg of Higher Education and Leadership Ministries; John Goebel and Treasury Services; or the Rev. Chris Dorsey or any one of a multitude of staff at Disciples Home Missions, we have sought to provide the best resources possible to our membership.
We have experienced a bit of transformation in our Regional Church staffing this year and any change for a small staff like ours is major. In April we learned that Rev. Bruce Bowerman-Jett, our official Food Services Manager and unofficial Camp Christian supervisor, was called to be the Pastor of First Christian Church of West Palm Beach, Florida. And while we were certainly excited for this wonderful move for him, we also knew that one call meant two of our staff positions would be opening up as his husband, Tom Bowerman-Jett, our Camp Site Manage, would naturally be leaving as well. Since their departure would be in the midst of the Summer Camp Season, the Executive Committee moved quickly and created and employed both an Interim Hospitality Manager, ably filled by Wendy Taylor, and an Interim Facilities Manager, ably filled by Dave Stonebraker-Martinez, both part-time. By the end of the year we had launched a search for a full-time Camp Christian Facilities Manager, who we hope will be on the job by March 1, 2025.
Luckily, two staff remain stable and steadfast: myself as I look forward to starting my fourth year in April as your Regional Minister, and Jennie Stoddart Bernard, our Regional Administrator, who celebrated her 20th anniversary on staff in the Regional Church Office in October of this past year!
The Regional Church Council (as well as our Regional Church Executive Committee) ably led by our Regional Church Moderator, Pastor Brenda Sanford, met regularly this past year (three times on-line and one time on-site and on-line) to stay focused on the health and vitality of the Regional Church. Our Regional Finance Committee, led by our Treasurer, Lena Van Buskirk, has also met regularly to review the financial health of the Regional Church and made a special effort to get a well-crafted 2025 Budget to the Regional Church Council for their November Annual Meeting. The Minutes of our Regional Church Council Meetings and all our Financial Statements from Treasury Services are posted on the Christian Church in Ohio website.
As your Regional Pastor I have been especially busy with the broader church as well as ecumenical commitments. I continue to serve as the Secretary of the Board for the Ohio Council of Churches. I was invited to be on the General Commission on Ministry this year working with the Standing Renewal Team, as well as being asked to be a Board of Trustee member for the National Benevolent Association. I automatically serve on the General Board of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the United States and Canada (ex-officio without vote) as well as on the College of Regional Ministers, where I am now serving as the co-chair of the Christmas Offering Committee.
My role as Regional Pastor was especially poignant this last year as there were significant illnesses of quite a number of active and retired clergy and lay leaders across the life of the Regional Church, as well as the deaths of a number of beloved clergy and lay leaders who were integral to the ministry of the Christian Church in Ohio and the General Church. In addition to these illnesses and deaths, I conscientiously seek to make myself available for prayer, support, and counsel to leaders who are in need of such. The particular challenges of a church that is aging and shrinking as well as living and serving in a political climate that has grown more divisive and tense has occupied much of my time, attention, and empathetic spirit.
I am also pleased that I have been active in the peace and justice movement this past year. In addition to attending several events, on-site and on-line, for the Poor Peoples Campaign: A National Call For Moral Revival, I have attended both a sermon and then an event on White Christian Nationalism with the Rev. Jim Wallis hosted by the Ohio Council of Churches. I also helped initiate and then signed on to a document supporting our immigrant friends, neighbors, family members, and colleagues, especially after some horrific public remarks were made by politicians about Haitian Immigrants in Springfield, Ohio. You can read that statement here: A Statement In Support Of Immigrant Communities. I had several congregations reach out to me to help guide them through the Open & Affirming process to fully welcome and include those in the LGBTQIA+ communities. I’m proud to say two of our churches officially became Open & Affirming in 2024: Hiram Christian Church and Mantua Center Christian Church.
Finally, none of this could be done without the hard work, care, and collegiality of our twelve Regional Church Elders. These gifted and faithful servants provide pastoral care, congregational visits, and clergy networking far beyond anything I could ever offer as one human being. They also represent me and the Regional Church for honorary events, such as congregational anniversaries and pastoral celebrations. When we gather for our on-line monthly meetings, I learn so much about our dedicated and Christ-led congregations. And all of this is a volunteer gift to me and to our Regional Church! (Which is a gentle reminder that Regional Elders deserve honorariums and mileage reimbursement like any other Guest Preacher!)
The Apostle writing in the book of Hebrews tells us, “By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.” (Hebrews 11:3) As you can tell, the Christian Church in Ohio staff, leaders, and volunteers have been hard at work making real and substantial and visible the love of God known to us best in Jesus Christ. None of this could be done without your help. In 2025 we look forward to learning from you more ways in which you and your congregation or ministry can be aided by the wisdom, expertise, resources, inspiration, and connections the Regional Church and General Church are best at providing. Email me at AHarris@ccinoh.org with your ideas and suggestions for how we can expand and improve our ministry.
And please don’t forget to not simply follow the Christian Church in Ohio via our website (www.ccinoh.org) or any one of our social media platforms (Facebook, Threads, Instagram, and YouTube) but to take time to like, comment, and SHARE our posts. Doing so amplifies the mission and ministry of Jesus Christ as it is made manifest through the Christian Church in Ohio (Disciples of Christ).
And thank you for your prayers and you support.
Gratefully & Faithfully Yours,
Allen
Rev. Allen V. Harris, Regional Pastor & President, the Christian Church in Ohio